From outer space

Hailing from space but living on earth Tomatozero is the creator of our recent Christmas Collection. They have been long time collaborators and one of the most prolific artists ever to be featured on Stickerbomb. Find out what inspires this couple, how they work and what they’re up to next in our Artist Story.

Please tell us your name and where you are from.

Our names are Alex and Lisa and we prefer to say we are from Space, coz we don’t believe in state borders, nationalities and etc, we are just humans and live on planet Earth.

What was the concept behind our recent Christmas collection for Stickerbomb?

We wanted to add some of our artist touch to the common well known symbols of Christmas. Make them a bit more punky-funky, keep them balanced between cute and freaky. It’s not the topic that we’ve ever used as an inspiration, so it was an interesting experience and we like the results so much!

View the Christmas collection available exclusively for licensing at Stickerbomb.

What makes your work unique and what inspires you?

It’s hard to say “unique” about our own work, people should judge if it’s special and worth paying attention on. But we really try our best creating each drawing, canvas, sticker, wall painting etc. we don’t want to stop and still looking for new ways and new forms and style which can be used in our art. Inspirational sources are changing all the time, for us it can be wild nature or art blogs on the internet..it’s different all the time and you never know where inspiration will catch you. You can spend all day surfing the internet, look through tons of drawings, pictures and blogs and still won’t feel anything. Or you can walk in the forest for a couple of hours and realise in one second how your next work should look. I think all the artists know this feeling when you full your head with millions of images and ideas and after that you relax somehow and your own new idea comes to you bright and clear.

When did you first discover your passion for art?

Well, I’ve been drawing all my life actually, but never thought its gonna be my profession, I was drawing comic characters during lessons and had no idea that one day it can earn me money for living. The thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want an ordinary office job and I wasn’t good at anything except drawing so when the time came I preferred to upgrade my drawing skills instead of sending resumes to different places. And that was four years ago, still no regrets.

If you had to pick one artist that inspired you the most who would it be?

Jamie Hewlett is the one. His works inspired me when I was a kid, they seemed so simple but so cool at the same time, so I tried to copy many things he did, and that’s how I started drawing. Now I hope our style transformed a lot and went far away from Hewlett’s.

What has been the most important thing to happen to you / your work that has pushed you forward and why?

I don’t think it happened in one moment or it was a particular situation that changed everything. I’d rather say its was a process of realising that art has no limits, you’re free to do what you want, and you have so many means to show it nowadays. We understood that art is not only a result of some kind of activity but art is activity itself, process of creation of something new that never existed before, new image is like invention of new flower or new animal, we take all the things we do very seriously and philosophically (?) even if they seem simple, we feel responsibility of what we’re showing to the world and it’s definitely the best we could do at this time on this skill level.

What is your work process? Where, how do you like to work? Do you work alone, late at night, drink, socialise?

Depends on a project really, but my wife is always with me, helping, giving me ideas. We used to draw on walls in clubs and pubs with hundreds of people walking around and trying to talk to you. We drew in quiet bright offices, once we made 15 canvases in two weeks for one of our exhibitions, I mean work process is very different all the time and each kind has pluses and minuses but we really enjoy every project we get, even tough ones, coz anyway we are grateful for opportunities to show our art and change something ordinary into beautiful and special.

What has been your biggest challenge as an artist?

Well I think every artist has this nonstop challenge to learn how to deal with the fact when one day you feel yourself almost genius and second day you feel you’re nothing. Also realising from time to time that your old works are crap and that now you could make them 100 times better and all the stuff like this. And you have to deal with it somehow, and try to grow and develop instead of hating yourself and everything you’ve done before.

Any artists we should look out for?

All the artists have have so many ways to show their art nowadays, so that if they’re really good enough you already know them and will find them out soon 😉 so we prefer to name none, than few of many.

What projects are you working on at the moment and where would you like to take your work next?

We are working on some commercial stuff now, coz we have plans to travel a lot this autumn.

Which city would you like to visit next and why?

If everything goes as it’s planned than next cities we gonna visit will be Madrid, Barcelona and Bangkok. We went to Amsterdam last year and really loved the atmosphere of this city, it seemed very friendly and open-minded to all kinds of creative activities. So we want to spend few weeks there, draw on walls, visit galleries, museums and coffeeshops. Ah yeah and enjoy sea in Spain first 😀

Stickerbomb

STICKERBOMB believes in providing artists, illustrators and muralists with a platform for showcasing their work to a global audience.
A brainchild of Studio Rarekind, a creative workshop with an established presence in London, Bangkok and Singapore, Stickerbomb curates artwork in its popular sticker book collectable series, raved about by a worldwide following.
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